Despite its rundown condition, the Pension has a charm. But the rooms are so tiny that it was a bit of a challenge for 6’2” Barry to manoeuvre in our room.
We had a great ride to Trelleborg. The Baltic Coast threw everything at us today...heavy winds, rain, and dramatic scenery. We were at the most southerly spot in Sweden and the weather contributed to an exhilarating ride.
We are at Smygehuk where the sea is lively and the air and wind is brisk.
Many people come here for the landscape and views, but Smygehuk is equally known for its fine seafood. You can buy an incredible selection of fresh and smoked fish here.
The Famntaget Statueby sculpture Axel Abbe is rumoured to have been modelled by Uma Thurman’s grandmother. She is a striking figure overlooking the harbour and open sea with her windswept hair and her outstretched arms embracing the sun and sea air.
We made it to our hotel and suddenly a violent storm of heavy rain, lightning and thunder erupted. Within minutes the roads had flooded and the thunder was fierce. We timed it just right. Note the van covered in spray for the flooded road.
As we come to understand the challenges a traveller faces in Sweden when students begin summer holidays and with Midsommer beginning on June 21st, we have come to the realization that we need to evaluate our plans for our final month. Both of us have fallen in love with Sweden, its friendly people, the incredible cycling...and we hate to leave.
We have decided to have a short day and stay in Trelleborg and make some decisions
As we have talked to Swedes over the past few days about the upcoming holidays in Sweden, they have looked at us with concern and all advised us that we would encounter overwhelming challenges. In fact, they told us that they choose not to travel at this time as it is too busy. They said that many small businesses close for the next few weeks as it is traditional to take holidays. Locals can’t hire trades people as they are away on holidays. It sounds to us like this would be like trying to travel in Italy during the last two weeks of August...and we wouldn’t do that.
Then Barry had a bright idea and started looking through the list of Warm Showers hosts as an alternative to hotels, and as you probably guessed, many were listed as “unavailable” since they were on holidays. As Warm Showers hosts, we have welcomed bicycle travellers to our home in Canada and provided accommodation, “warm showers” and advice about our area, but ironically we rarely take advantage of it on the road. I know, that is weird, but we are naturally shy and hate imposing on people. And here we are, finally prepared to shake off our shyness and go the Warm Showers route, and the hosts we looked at are away on holidays. Well, this “sealed the deal” and we have decided that our option to change our route is now. We have many options: take the ferry from Trelleborg to Travemunde and explore the northern section of the Elbe River cycle route (we previously rode it from Prague to Magdeburg), or ride on to Malmo and take the ferry to Germany, or (and we got really excited!) take the ferry to Klaipeda, Lithuania and complete what we had planned before Sweden, or take the plunge and ride to Gotenburg and risk the challenges of Midsommer without preplanning. Oops, the ferry to Klaipeda goes once a week and it left earlier today! I guess the travel gods are telling us that the Baltic States are for another time. We liked the suggestion that Suzanne Gibson (a fellow Cycle Blaze member) gave us, with the insight that she had done a cycling trip starting with Helsinki, ferry to Estonia and riding through Lithuania and Latvia to Gdansk and then taking the ferry from there. We like that approach. We’ll shelve that idea for a future trip.
So, now we know that we won’t ride to Gotenburg on the Kattegattleden cycle route, but we are ok with that, as we are already planning a return visit to Sweden as soon as we can, with our tent.
So, late in the evening, we went online and booked our ferry on TT Lines from Trelleborg to Travemunde. It leaves at 9:30 and we arrive in Germany at 19:30. Pretty exciting. And I should mention that if you are ever staying in Trelleborg, we highly recommend the Clarion Trelleborg Maganiset which is located at the ferry terminal (we could see our ship from the hotel) and they have the civilized approach of providing afternoon sweets with coffee, a hot 3 course dinner and breakfast...all for a reasonable price. Wow.
Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles) Total: 2,536 km (1,575 miles)
